Science log 2- Setting sail

One of Liquid Robotic's Wave gliders

Last night at around 9:00 we finally moved out of the Theodore dock, down Mobile Bay, and into the great expanse of the gulf. This first leg of the cruise will last 2 days, Thursday night to Saturday evening. The main purpose of this short cruise is to release the wave glider into the gulf. The wave glider is an autonomous ocean vehicle, created by a company called Liquid Robotics, and commonly described as a robot. This robot is slightly different from most in that it is uses solar energy generated by the solar panels ontop of the 'surfboard' body to power the electronics and has no motor, but is powered by waves.

The glider converts wave motion into forward thrust, thus propelling itself forward. It can travel from .5 to 2 knots depending on the roughness of the sea. The amazing thing about this piece of equipment is that it can be released into the ocean, travel long distances, and collect an array of data, ranging from weather and water temperature, water quality, marine mammal vocalizations, and even take pictures. The plan is to deploy the wave glider early in the morning and then check on it on Saturday on the way back into port. At the same time, vertical cast will occur continuing the collection of water quality data.

So after going to bed (at 12:45), I set my alarm for 5:30 in order to get up and watch the deployment. So I crawled out of bed, ate some bisquit and gravy and a to-order omellette (I swear I will gain weight with this sedentary ship life and hearty ship food), and stepped onto the deck. [Safety moment: When on the slippery deck, we must wear a life jacket, hard hat, and steel toe boots].

Once the sun finally peeked over the horizon and the rain began to drizzle we set to work deploying the glider. It was quite successful and we all watched in excitment as it moved quickly away.

All and all, I think it was a succesful deployment. Now to take a nap before my 12:00 shift.

Ship science log- Day 1

I have decided to change the focus of my blog from the recent craft documentation to a log of the the activities I am going to participate in during the next 2 weeks. I will be the representative for a science vessel that has been deployed in the Gulf of Mexico for the relief efforts after the spill. I have to admit I feel slightly overwhelmed with all the responsibilities I have to take-over. My colleague and friend, Lawrence, has been doing this on and off for a total of 6 weeks so he has the drill pretty down pat. I, on the otherhand, am truely unexperienced, but hope to gain some experience over these next 2 weeks.
I arrived on the Ryan Chouest on Tuesday evening at 6:00. The ship was commissioned in 1996, it has been traveling and working in the gulf ever since. There are 24 people total on the ship- a captain, first mate, several deck hands, two cooks, four geotechnician running the echo sonar, four scientists from CSIRO, a GSI expert, and myself. It is a dynamic crew and the ship captain runs the activities on the ship very well.

Tuesday I simply arrived on the ship, meet everyone, and then made a late night supply run at wal-mart and lowe's. So for the rest of the blog I will write a little science log so that everyone can keep up with what is going on and get an understanding of ship life.

This ship has been used for this particular mission for about 3 months. The primary purpose is to monitor the detection of hydrocarbons at varying senistivities at surface depths to depths of ~100-130 m. The current instrument platform has an array of sensors that together detect and differeientate hydrocarbons in marine environments. So far the team has surveyed over 7000 nm in the Gulf. Below is a map of the previous ship cruises that have occurred during the past 3 months.

During my portion of the cruise we will also be deploying a relatively new technology, called wave gliders. These wave gliders also detect hydrocarbon values in addition to CTD information. The deployment should begin late Thursday afternoon.

Biking in the heights

I like the urban biking options in Houston. This trail runs from the far northern part of the heights and then goes towards downtown. I am not sure when they will extend it all the way downtown or if they will, but I sure hope they do. It is nice to have the little urban biking adventure. We could see sky scrapers and turtles and fish and lots of trash all wrapped in one.

Impromptu baby bib

So I had some scraps leftover from my pajama pants and a neighbor who had a little baby boy recently. Put those two together, with the fact that I didn't feel like knitting anything, and I decided to sew a little bib. It was fun. I got the pattern from on-line, bought some flannel for the backing and made a little bib.  I now need to attach the snap closure.

Sew III- Pajama pants

I took third sewing class. I made a pair of pajama pants with pockets!  It was pretty fun and was a two part class. I feel a little more confident at my ability to make something from a pattern, but still not confident enough to do it by myself. I met a nice woman in my class and think we will be pretty good friends. It is always nice to drink wine with someone and talk about something other than work and geology. I think she and I will try to make some projects together to improve our skills and confidence.

Sewing class #2

Today I took my third sewing class at sew crafty. (http://www.sewcraftyhouston.com/) I must stress what a great little place this is and so conveniently located! This class was to make their tote bag. This is normally offered as a large class, but in the second class I met a nice woman, Angie, who suggested that maybe we take the class together as a 2 hour private lesson. This was a great idea. It saved us each $5 and also gave us a chance to get to know each other better while having more one on one time with the instructor.

After 2 hours I managed to make a tote bag. Now Matt is joking with me that I am now going to make tote bags for everyone in my book club.  Probably not, but I will make one for my ravelry yarn swap that is coming up. What fun!

New bookclub member, delicious cake maker!

The latest bookclub meeting was quite a success I would say. Even though we had a low turnout, we had some pleasant conversation and yummy food! The highlight being Heather R.'s delicious sauerkraut and sausage and meeting our newest member, Kellie. I will have to get Heather's recipe and post it. Along with meeting a charming woman, she also was kind enough to bring a theme cake to the meeting.


Kellie and her mom own a little business called Kreative Kountry Designs (http://www.kkreativedesigns.vpweb.com). They make custom cookies, cakes, candles, and embroidering.